The refrigeration unit means games take place rain or shine and sometimes – given the town’s location in the foothills of the North Cascades – plenty of snow.
“Everybody comes home with a great story,” Cole said. “Whatever the weather does, it’s never a problem because it’s just sort of fun.”
During one of the three yearly tournaments early last month, the game had to be halted midway through so players could shovel snow off the ice.
“Right before we decided to shovel the snow, there was so much snow on the ice that you could hardly see the puck,” Cole said.
But for Tyler Zetting, a former Kraken emergency backup goalie who works as a senior accounting director with the team and has played in the tournament for two years, dealing with the weather adds to Puckaroo’s allure.
“It’s how hockey was meant to be played and you just feel that,” Zetting told King 5. “You have the cold air. You have the snow dusting down, and the sun shining through the trees. And it’s just unlike playing inside an actual rink.”
Zetting said memories of the tournament are “frozen” in his mind.
“You’re just playing the game you love in this environment,” he told the King 5 program.
Tournaments typically take place on weekends in late November and at the beginning of January and February according to skill level. Entrants are accepted based on skills, league level, past play, and other factors and all teams are guaranteed three games and either a championship or consolation final appearance.
Cole still can’t believe his instincts about the setting have led to an event now going on a decade-plus.
“I was going to Winthrop with my family for my little kids to play in the snow and saw the rink there,” Cole told King 5. “And I thought immediately that this would be a great place for a tournament.”
But while he’s met “so many people over the years” trying to build similar outdoor rinks statewide, he adds that they often don’t anticipate the costs involved.
“Everybody’s trying to sort of copy this model,” he said. “But what they don’t understand is it’s tons of money. And you’re not really going to make it back.”
Cole said the tournaments do help lure additional tourism to Winthrop, which relied heavily on donated land and government grants for the project. The current refrigeration system was also bought second hand and now needs replacing with a new one for even more money.
But Cole said it is getting done, largely because the outdoor games have become so interwoven with the town’s winter identity.
“It’s just a perfect spot to have it,” he said. “When I first saw it I thought it would just be so ideal to be able to play a tournament outdoors. And we’re still doing it.”
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